By Mike Schnitzel
What many people don't know is that the veteran award winning broadcaster got his start in Valley Stream.
Penza, who died on Feb. 16 at the age of 74, was raised at 139 Union Street in Valley Stream and attended Clear Stream Avenue School. He attended Central High School, where he began his career in journalism, working as a copy boy for the famed gossip columnist Walter Winchell while completing his high school education. He graduated from Central in 1950.
When the Valley Stream Central High School District established its Distinguished Alumni Award, Penza was chosen as the first recipient along with newscaster Mike Schneider.
Long-time Valley Stream community information coordinator Arlene Hinkemeyer was in attendance at the first Distinguished Alumni Awards assembly on May 18, 1989, and recalled how Penza was able to connect with people in the audience.
"That first Distinguished Alumni Awards assembly was a magical one," Hinkemeyer recalled, "and Penza definitely impressed all with his charm. I remember seeing him on the news several years later, seeming especially excited on the air to report on two Central High School girls who made history as place kickers on the Central High School football team."
According to an article by Hinkemeyer in the June 1989 issue of the Valley Stream Observer, the Central High School District's newsletter, Penza told the audience that had assembled for the first Distinguished Alumni Award presentation that it was the first time he had returned to the stage at the school in nearly 40 years. The first time he had done so was when English teacher Bert Keller asked him to lead the week's morning assemblies. That was when he got his taste for the stage, according to Penza. The auditorium at Central High School was later named for the man who first got him intrigued in his future profession ‹ Keller.
John DeGrace, the current Republican Nassau County Election Commissioner who was then Valley Stream's mayor, was on hand that day to present Penza with his award.
"He was most gracious and affable and he was very interesting when he spoke about his time as Central," DeGrace said. "It was very sad to hear of his passing."
Hinkemeyer also mentioned an anecdote which Penza discussed during the assembly that he said helped him throughout his career. A social studies teacher had chastised Penza for not knowing what a barrow was during a lesson on state agricultural products. After Penza asked the teacher why he would have to learn something he might never use, Penza said the teacher told him, "Penza, somewhere, somehow, sometime, you're going to need this information."
After graduating from New York University with a degree in radio and television, one of Penza's first auditions was at a station in Waterloo, Iowa. According to Hinkemeyer, in a great twist of irony, the station wanted a newscaster who was familiar with farming terms and knew what a barrow was.
After working as a news director at several smaller in the Midwest and the south, Penza landed his first job in New York as a news writer and producer at WABC-TV in 1961. He moved to CBS in 1963, where he became a news correspondent where he covered the events of those tumultuous years, including the 1965 transit strike, the 1967 Newark riots and budget woes and corruption scandals during the mayoralty of John Lindsay.
In 1972, Penza was tapped to anchor WCBS-TV's 11 p.m. newscast with Jim Jensen, where he was a popular newscaster, according to audience samplings that the channel had conducted.
Penza moved to NBC in 1980, where he worked as a reporter and weekend anchor. He was the senior correspondent and back-up anchor for News Channel 4 at the time of his death, according to the station's Web site.
One of Penza's most famous interviews occurred in 1998 while he was reporting Pope John Paul II's visit to Cuba. While covering the event, Penza found Joanne Chesimard, who agreed to be interviewed on the air. Chesimard was convicted of killing New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster and sentenced to life in prison in 1979, but escaped to Cuba where she was granted political asylum by the government. The interview led then-New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman to request federal help from the Justice Department in a failed attempt to obtain Chesimard's extradition.
During his career, Penza won six Emmy Awards for his reporting and two Gold Typewriter Awards from the New York Press Club. He also won awards from the Long Island and Philadelphia press clubs.
And, he will always have a place as the Valley Stream High School District's first co-winner of the Distinguished Alumni Award.
Arlene Hinkemeyer contributed to this story. Comments about this story? Mschnitzel@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 265.
